Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Plaid Flannel Lives!

Here's a random observation from the last two films I've watched: untucked plaid flannel shirts might be clawing their way out of their shallow grave.

I wouldn't have noticed it had I not just watched an episode of The X-Files from 1993 that contains perhaps the best visual commentary on the 90s evolution in what counted as sexy in a single shot:

Even though Scully's shirt isn't flannel (it's silk! even better!) this got me thinking about how sad I was about the decline of all those 90s fashion trends: loose-fitting everything, overalls, silk shirts, silk boxers (was that a thing? Or was that like another version of Drakkar, something that high school boys wore in their self-defeating quest to seem mature? I can't tell you, even though I was a major offender) and, most of all, plaid flannel shirts, untucked.

But then I started seeing plaid flannel everywhere in the last two Rock, Paper, Hatchet films we've watched. In Pay the Ghost, it's worn by both the sexy devil coed AND Nicholas Cage. And it's the exact same blue/red/green print--the same print on the flannel shirt I was wearing when I met my wife that sweltering California day in July!

So I was like, huh! And then the very next film up, The Veil (review should be up next week), is like a flannel plaid volcano:

That last image may be dim, so Microsoft Paint to the rescue:

That's three plaid flannel shirts. On both men and women. One tied around the waist. One open. And all untucked.

I'm going to keep a close eye on this developing story. And if I see any characters rocking oversize double-breasted blazers with mammoth shoulderpads, we'll uncork the champagne. . .